AquaBounty Technologies


AquaBounty Technologies is a biotechnology company based in Maynard, Massachusetts, United States. The company is notable for its research and development of genetically modified fish. It aims to create products that aim to increase the productivity of aquaculture. As of 2020, sale of salmon has been approved in Canada and the United States.

Products

The company has developed hybrid salmon, trout, and tilapia designed to grow faster than traditional fish. Only the salmon has progressed to government approvals. Their hybrid Atlantic salmon incorporates a gene from a Chinook salmon, which bears a single copy of the stably integrated α-form of the opAFP-GHc2 gene construct at the α-locus in the EO-1α line. AquaBounty has patented and trademarked this fish as the AquAdvantage salmon, a sterile Atlantic salmon female that can grow to market size in half the time of conventional salmon.
The company was reported to have made its first sale of 4.5 tonnes of AquaAdvantage salmon to Canadian customers in July 2017.

Finances

In 2012, a New York Times article reported the finances of AquaBounty were not in good shape and the company had to reduce staff from 27 to 12. In March 2012, AquaBounty raised US$2 million in new capital, but this would only last until the end of the year.
Georgian investor Kakha Bendukidze owned 47.6% of the company's stock before selling to American synthetic biology firm Intrexon in October 2012. Intrexon put up $500,000 in bridge financing and offered to buy the rest of the company. Intrexon acquired majority ownership of Aquabounty in 2013.